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06/20/2016

04/06/2015

Great infographic regarding musician's revenue from music sales & streams (tidal, spotify). My take-away: streaming is here to stay & may be a great intro to potential new fans, but any artist not already platinum status needs to cut out the middle men (iTunes, Amazon), customize (limited editions, tangible items) & sell directly to fans as much as possible. http://bit.ly/1IvByuK

04/17/2014

Due to slow news weeks and my crazy schedule, I opted to skip a few weeks in the interest of brevity. This post brings you: iTunes selling high res files, Warner Bros' discovery re: YouTube, David Byrne & Billy Bragg's thoughts on streaming, Wu Tang, and Billboard's use of Twitter for charts.

Two articles surfaced this week indicating that iTunes will begin selling high resolution audio files sooner than later as a response to dwindling music download sales (down 13.3% from this time last year). Whether you view this as a cynical marketing ploy or not, 24 bit is the future & the right direction.

When Warner Bros pulled all of their music from YouTube in a copyright dispute in '09, they actually saw sales of top charting albums increase by 10k units/week. The phrase "top charting" is important, as this is not necessarily reflective of non-charting, non-Warner artist's experiences:

The issues musicians face regarding music streaming is daunting and complex. We can already see how it's playing out with giants like iTunes (see above). Here's a long/smart post on on the subject from David Byrne. A lot of it is background/definitions that, if you already know, you can skip to the suggestions at the end:

Only Wu Tang... I know most of you have already seen this make the rounds but I think this is ridiculous AND brilliant, and underscores the importance of making your music "limited edition" and special in the age of intangible, unlimited copies:

Last but not least, 2 things I did not know: Billboard uses Youtube data to determine charts & music is the most-discussed topic on Twitter:

03/25/2014

Here are the sales #s for 2013 & while reflecting an overall decline thanks to streaming, there's an increase in local repertoire. "In France, for example, 17 of the top 20 selling albums of 2013 were local repertoire, up from 10 in 2011. In Germany, 7 of the top 10 selling albums in 2013 were local repertoire a trend reflected in 13 selected non-english language markets."

There were a couple of important rulings recently regarding the royalty rates paid by digital radio services such as Pandora to music publishers. This is a good cliffs notes version of the legal issues at stake:

Few of my posts last week illicited as much of a response as Dave Grohl's advice to aspiring musicians. What I came away with is: be great at what ever you wind up doing. No amount of strategizing will outsmart hard work. And sometimes the things we want aren't necessarily the things we're great at. Be open. And kick ass. Warning, it's full of expletivies but no less smart http://bit.ly/1nYcTJx

This one is a doozie and I'm not sure how many of you actually saw this: Don't like the woefully low royalties paid via streaming? A band called Vulfpeck outsmart Spotify with album "Sleepify": short clips of silence that they ask fans to repeatedly stream overnight. Crunching the numbers, if 100 fans do it, they could be making $588 a night:

Vinyl is the new cool thing to do, but it's not cheap and the market is getting crowded:

03/18/2014

Starting today, if you've subscribed via email to this blog, you will receive a weekly "greatest hits" recap of my music-related posts on social media. This will ensure you see everything I post without Facebook or Twitter determining the who, when & how. Of course, you're always free to unsubscribe and I'll never use your email for any reason other than these updates and Sound Bites Dog related news. Ok, let's do this:

Starting today, if you've subscribed via email to this blog, you will receive a weekly "greatest hits" recap of my music-related posts on social media. This will ensure you see everything I post without Facebook or Twitter determining the who, when & how. Of course, you're always free to unsubscribe and I'll never use your email for any reason other than these updates and Sound Bites Dog related news. Ok, let's do this:

From 03.11.14 - 03.18.14

Facebook Statuses: If you're a band/brand on FB, your statuses are probably only being seen by fewer than 10% of fans. Use a personal page or have your blog/website be the aggregator for all content (and yes, this is why I'm doing a weekly "greatest hits" now) http://read.bi/1dKYGo6

Streaming Royalty Rates: We need to overhaul streaming royalty rates right now or artists won't have 0.008 cents to rub together. It's in the best interests of everyone in our business (labels, publishers, artists AND tech) to actively pursue this for obvious reasons: our industry (like almost any industry you can think of) cannot be sustained by mere hobbyists in their bedrooms. We need fair and adequate compensation for market demand (music is used to sell everything and anything you can think of including nearly 40% of all youtube views & their associated advertising) http://bit.ly/1gKG9Kv

SXSW 2014 as summed up by Lady Gaga: "The best thing that happened last night was I came off the stage. I was covered in paint vomit — we did live art at the show — & the CEO of Frito-Lay came in w/ all her kids & was like, 'That was so brilliant,' & she was crying." http://lat.ms/1j20M7C

Neil Young's Pono: While I'm encouraged anyone cares at all about audio fidelity, I think a portable HD player seems antithetical to the reality of said device (IE listening on headphones at the gym). There also seems to be plenty of other HD, inexpensive alternatives to Pono. That being said, kudos to anybody doing anything outside the purview of Apple and advancing the cause of higher fidelity audio files: http://bit.ly/1i6ZWHr

09/02/2013

Musicians are some of the hardest working-people that I know. Most of you have at least 2 jobs; MUSIC and then the one that pays for it & everything else. With this in mind, the first 5 people to paypal $500 to hdekline@gmail.com, receive mastering for 10 songs/online delivery- redeemable up to a year. That's over 20% off my already "Crazy Eddie" reasonable rates & you can use this 1 song at a time or all at once. The only catch, you have 1 year from the time you pay to redeem. Do it. This will go fast. And then turn off your computer & go stare at a tree for a few hours.

The details:

$500 must be received in full, up front for the offer to be valid (which is why Paypal is key).

Once you've paid, I will follow up to confirm receipt & answer questions.

Any additional songs or services are regular price.

The promotion includes all services normally provided for online mastering (which is a test master & any reasonable revisions).

This offer is not valid with any other Sound Bites Dog promotion or sale & it's 1 per person. If I decide to do it again within the same year in which you're already participating, you're not eligible. Share the wealth, peeps.

What did I forget? Email (hdekline@gmail.com) or call (310.621.1896) me with any questions, just remember that time is of the essence. FIRST 5 people. And yes, I'll be working today.

01/03/2011

After 10 years of an internet-centric age, T-Bone Burnett famously said this year that musicians should steer clear of the internet. Heh heh. Let the backlash begin. Some folks went berserk but I think his main point was to remind musicians of why any of this "newfangled" technology matters; the music. I'm a big fan of the new tools, but if you have nothing to say and can't write a song, it's all for nada. That being said, it sure is nice to be able to connect with your fans with the click of a button. I agree with T-Bone in spirit, even though I'm pretty sure he's not suggesting that we go back to the days when we delivered upcoming tour dates via stage coach.

In a similar vein, recording engineer Bobby Owsinski recently blogged that 2011 will be the year of musicians getting realistic and I think it's already true. I've heard a lot fewer musicians seriously discussing "getting signed" or becoming "rock stars." Is this the end of hope or just the death of posers? All of the cats who got into this because they thought it was a fast ticket to US Weekly and driving a Bentley... good luck (and by the way, it NEVER was, even when times were good... take a look at this chart). Talented people deserve to make a living but music is not a popularity or beauty contest.

For anybody who cares about audio fidelity, it's been a painful decade. It took a while for everybody to get used to the software, but I'm finally starting to hear mixes and records that sound great again. All of the "analog" snobs (you know who you are) started off this decade saying they'd never sit in front of a computer screen all day or use amp-modeling technology. Ha ha. Yeah, right. Tom Petty's "Mojo" comes to mind (it was recorded and mixed entirely "in the box"). At this point it's like taking a stand against electric drills in favor of screwdrivers. Or chocolate vs. peanut butter. Does it sound good? If so, who cares how you got there? The important part of anything is always the idea and craftsmanship. That's it. Just don't tell that to the boy with the most expensive toys.

Mastering has obviously had it's own challenges. There's nothing quite as lame as the so called "Loudness Wars" that have marred this decade. How many records were ruined because somebody was in the volume equivalent of a dick measuring contest? Yes, I said it and I apologize to those of you who have more sensitive constitutions, but it's the truth. I am, however, eternally optimistic. I'm finally starting to hear more musical approaches in the records that I'm buying. Or at least that's all I'm listening to. And more importantly, I didn't hear one client this year say, "can you make it louder?" Right on.

Onwards and upwards. Have a great 2011 and as always, I'm grateful to be working with you guys.

08/19/2010

It's not surprising at all, 16 years after Pearl Jam testified in front of Congress about the insidiousness of the Ticketmaster monopoly (to no avail), proceeded by this year's merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, that we're staring down the barrel of the worst touring summer in recent memory. Higher ticket prices, fewer venues, and too many bands have put the squeeze on one of the last remaining sources of revenue left in the music business.

And yet, musicians are finding a way. I'm reminded of the old school, 80's punk days when bands had to find alternate venues to play (sometimes living rooms) because mainstream promoters and club owners just didn't get it. This new underground touring circuit was forged out of communities of like-minded people and worked out very well for bands like Black Flag, Fugazi, and many others of their ilk. It demonstrated the power of networking and niche before there was even the internet.

Fast forward to now: the more things change, the more they stay the same. Fans and artists once again find themselves working together to get the shows back on the road. Websites like http://dodiy.org/ are establishing networks of people willing to host shows at houses, backyards, galleries, you-name-it. Artists such as David Dyas, Scott Warren, Manda Mosher, and Matthew Ryan are filing into cars together, splitting the gas, and backing each other on stage, all without the traditional accoutrement or overhead. Homebound artists are hosting live online concerts through companies like Ustream. Even heavy-weights like LCD Soundsystem and Pixies are challenging the old-guard by brokering tickets directly to their fans with the help of Topspin (see below).

Pretty cool, eh?

Now I'm not saying DIY touring is easy and there's gotta be a 100 Woody Guthrie songs bemoaning the life of the traveling troubadour... but compared to the "old days", the resources available to you now are a veritable gold mine. Hell, the Honduran gov't has been overthrown with less.